BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 123 



Genus CARPODACUS Kaup. 



Carpodacus Kaup, Entw. Eur. Thierw., 1829, 161. (Type, Loxia fri/thrina 



Linnpeus. ) 

 Erythrothorax Brehm, Vijg. Deutsohl., 1831, 249. (Type, Loxin erijtlir'ma Lin- 



na?us. ) 

 Hxmorhous (not of Boie, 1826) Swai.nsox, Classif. Birds, ii, 18.j7, 295. (Type, 



Fringilla purpurea Gmelin. ) 

 PyrrhnUnota Hodgson, in Gray's Zool. Misc., 1844, 85. (Type, Loxla crythrina 



Linnpeus. ) 

 Burrim Ridgway, Man. X. Am. Birds, 1887, 390. (Type, Fringilla ntcxicana 



Miiller. ) 



Rather small or medium-sized (occasionally large) arbon^al tinches, 

 with the bill moderately developed, short-conical; adult males with 

 the plumage at least partl}^ red, adult females and young males oliv^e, 

 brownish, or grayish, the under parts whitish conspicuously streaked 

 with the color of the upper surface. 



Bill shorter than head, conical, thick, its depth at Imse greater than 

 its width at same point and about equal to (or a little more or less than) 

 length of maxilla from nostril; culmen mostly nearl}^ or quite straight 

 (purpureus, emsinli, roseus, etc.), or decidedly curved throughout {mexi- 

 canus, erythrin us, tliura, etc.); maxillary tomium straight or even faintly 

 convex in middle portion {purpureus, easslnil, roseus) or concave nearly 

 throughout {inexicanus, erythrinns, thura). Wing less than four to 

 more than five times as long as tarsus; ninth, eighth, and seventh, or 

 eighth, seventh, and sixth primaries longest, the ninth usually equal to 

 or longer than the sixth, sometimes equal to the eighth, rarely shorter 

 than sixth; primaries exceeding secondaries by less than length of tar- 

 sus {tJiura) to nearh^ twice as much. Tail less than three-fourths as 

 long as wing to live-sixths as long {tkura), deeply emarginate (pur- 

 pureiis, cassinii, etc.) to nearly or quite even {hiexlcanus). Tarsus 

 short, about equal to middle toe with claw. 



Coloration. — Adult males with more or less of red, and more or less 

 streaked; adult females and young conspicuously streaked, especially 

 on under parts. 



Range. — Temperate portions of Europe, Asia, and Morth America, 

 southward, in the last, to southern Mexico. 



1 have been strongly inclined to separate the conical-billed, fork- 

 tailed species from those with convex culmen, more or less arched 

 maxillary tomium and less forked (sometimes c^uite even) tail, but find 

 the extremes so nearl}^ connected by species of more or less interme- 

 diate character that I have tinall}^ concluded to follow the usual custom 

 of keeping them all in one genus. To do this, however, requires a 

 very "elastic" generic diagnosis, as may be seen above. I have not 

 been able to examine more than three ^ of the considerable innnl)er of 



^ See note 2 on page 124. 



